Enbridge Allowed to Start Pipeline 6A by End of Week

Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Enbridge Energy Partners LP will be
allowed to restart a key oil pipeline supplying the U.S. Midwest
by the end of the week, following the repair of a rupture, a
federal official said.

Enbridge has already submitted a restart plan, said Carl
Griffis, Chicago-area senior engineer from the Pipeline and
Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, who was on the scene
of the leak in Romeoville, Illinois. The government doesn’t see
any “systemic problems” with the pipeline, Griffis said in an
interview late yesterday.

Oil futures topped $78 a barrel following the closure of
Enbridge’s Line 6A, which can carry 670,000 barrels a day of
crude, equal to more than one-third of Midwest imports. Gasoline
in the Chicago spot market rose as much as 10 percent after the
Sept. 9 closure on speculation that refiners would have to cut
output, leading to tighter supply.

Workers for the Houston-based company were welding a
replacement section yesterday into the 466-mile line that has
been shut for six days after spilling about 6,100 barrels of oil
from a section in Romeoville, 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest
of Chicago. The 34-inch line runs from Superior, Wisconsin, to
Griffith, Indiana, according to Enbridge’s website.

‘Up and Running’

“It should be up and running in some form or fashion by
the end of the week,” said Griffis. “We are looking at the
cause at this point in time, we don’t see don’t see any reason
to keep the line down while we investigate.”

Enbridge yesterday restarted a 70,000-barrel-a-day link
from Ontario to Kiantone, New York, shut earlier to investigate
a possible leak. The unit of Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. still
has to meet certain PHMSA requirements before it can restart the
190,000 barrel-a-day Line 6B oil pipeline in Michigan, which was
halted in July after a rupture.

Crude for October delivery fell 64 cents, or 0.8 percent,
to $76.16 a barrel at 9:28 a.m. in London in electronic trading
on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The discount of October
contract to November futures widened 1 cent to $1.04 a barrel,
after narrowing to 84 cents this week.

Enbridge shipped some heavy crude that was designated to
run on Line 6A over Line 14 instead, Glenn Herchak, a company
spokesman, said yesterday in a telephone interview.

Federal regulators investigating the cause of the 6A leak
took custody of the damaged area of the pipe. A 12-foot section
of pipe has been loaded on a truck bound for Washington, D.C.,
said Matthew Nicholson, an investigator at the site from the
National Transportation Safety Board.

Congressional Hearing

Enbridge Inc. Chief Executive Officer Patrick Daniel is
expected to testify at a congressional hearing on the July spill
in Michigan from the 6B line, the U.S. House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee said. The hearing will also examine the
oil spill from the 6A line in Romeoville, Illinois, the
committee said in a statement on its website.

Citgo Petroleum Corp. said on Sept. 10 that it’s seeking
other supplies for its 170,500-barrel-a-day Lemont refinery that
gets crude through the pipeline. The plant expects to keep
running at planned rates while the pipeline is repaired, a
company official said yesterday.

Marathon Oil Corp. has made adjustments to supply routes
feeding its Midwest plants, said Shane Pochard, a company
spokesman. Marathon imported 6.11 million barrels oil from
Canada in June, according to the Energy Department.

The Line 6A leak is the second in as many months on
Enbridge’s Lakehead System. Total deliveries on the system
averaged 1.62 million barrels a day in 2008, meeting
approximately 72 percent of Minnesota refinery capacity, 64
percent of the greater Chicago area, and 68 percent of
Ontario’s, according to a company website.

No Corrective Action

Enbridge didn’t receive a “corrective action” order from
PHMSA for Line 6A, which would have required the company to meet
certain requirements before restarting the line.

“When deciding to place a pipeline under a Corrective
Action Order, PHMSA analyzes certain factors to determine if the
pipeline poses an immediate threat to life, property, or the
environment,” Damon Hill, a spokesman for the agency, said in
an e-mail. “Line 6A did not meet the criteria.”

Enbridge shut its Line 6B crude pipe in Michigan and isn’t
able to restart until it meets requirements that form part of a
“corrective action” order from the regulator.

The company has completed all the required testing for Line
6B, according to Terri Larson, a spokeswoman for Enbridge.
“There has been a continuing discussion with the folks at PHMSA
and hopefully we will hear soon as to when we might be able to
restart.”

Restart Plan

“PHMSA will make a decision on the restart plan when we
are confident all concerns have been satisfied to ensure
safety,” Hill said.

ConocoPhillips’ Wood River plant and Exxon Mobil Corp.’s
Joliet refinery in Illinois, along with BP Plc’s Whiting plant
in Indiana, are also located in the vicinity of the pipeline.

Crews worked yesterday to attach the second side of a 12-foot replacement section on Line 6A, according to Gina Jordan, a
company spokeswoman. Upon completion, crews will X-ray the
section to test the welds, she said.

“Obviously this is a critical situation, all eyes are on
Enbridge,” said Griffis. “Public safety comes first no matter
what.”